Well worth the price for its exquisite blend of silky delicacy and dense strawberry and black cherry fruit that is neatly framed with bacon-crisp French oak toastiness. Balance is the key to vinuous greatness, and this one keeps so many balls in the air that you'd think winemaker Dan Goldfield was a juggler instead of a winemaker.

Medium-intensity aromas of ripe plums and cherries are joined by creamy, vanillin-laden oakiness in the aromas.

Best value.

Generous fruit, intense black cherry flavor, a hearty richness and considerable character.

Big raspberry, cherry, cinnamon scents and tastes.

A very forward, ready to drink wine, with light cherry aromas and only a slight wood impression---a note of burnt leaves or tar---and a compact structure that will give pleasure now or over the next year.

Bright, black cherry flavors with a brisk, American oak edge. A hint of nutmeg and no filtration give the wine extra dimension.

Raspberry and spice scents, dark cherry flavors; well-made. Good value.

Multiple layers of raspberry, black cherry, cocoa, spice flavors; fine balance; big but soft. Very drinkable now, should develop interesting bottle; age flavors for 5-8 years more.

A ripe, rich, velvety blend of Central and North Coast Pinot Noir. Worth a hunt.

Nicely made and well-structured. The wine is spectatular, with an earthy/cherry sort of aroma, deep and powerful fruit, and a racy, spiced aftertaste. The Reserve bottling is a steal.

Oregano and cassis, complex, rich, dry, spicy, light, elegant.

The Best Pinot Noirs Under $20: A Discriminating Guide Marked by notes of black currant and spice, this wine is fairly rich and full bodied, aged in French oak barrels (about 17% new). It’s also more powerful and higher in alcohol (14.5%) than the other Pinots listed here.

Let’s Talk Wine: Bold red wines for Father’s Day Celebrating 40 years of winemaking! A delicious medium-bodied pinot with strong aromas and flavors of red and black berries with hints of dark chocolate and tobacco.

Getting to know the wine of the La Crema Winery When it comes to Pinot Noir wines, I am known to be mean, sarcastic and curmudgeonly. Having experienced the very best of the best it is hard to warm up to the ordinary. Not only did I warm up to this wine, it actually impressed me. The first thing that caught my attention was the color, which is much darker than most California Pinot Noirs. Next, I found the aroma and the flavor to be extremely complex and multi-layered. The aroma is an ever changing display of black cherry, blackberry, and plum with leather, coffee and clove in the background. The flavor is just as expansive and explosive as is the aroma and concentrates on plum, blackberry, and boysenberry with oak in the background. This is a grand wine, in both meanings of the term; it is big and it is regal. Please do not miss this wine.

Wines from Mothers to Mothers Jen Walsh's superb Pinot is gorgeous in the glass and on the palate. Its expressive fruit is coupled with excellent acidity, smoothly rounded tannins, notable complexity and much more.

Top 10 Wines For Pairing With Favorite Grilled Foods Heading into the lighter reds, this cool-climate Pinot Noir goes equally well with fish and meat. My favorite pairing for this cola- and dark-fruit-driven wine is a local cod on the grill or a nice fatty pork chop.

Cherry, pencil and spice with a touch of orange and vanilla. Good.

WINE WITH…Chicken a la Flamande The white wines we liked best with this dish tended to be fresh and soft on the palate. Good reds likewise were inclined to be soft and reigned in rather than brash and tannic. At the same time, regardless of color, the best wines were full of enticing flavor. La Crema, Sonoma Coast (California) Pinot Noir 2016 This Pinot’s ripe cherry and cassis flavors wrap deliciously around the smoky bacon elements in the dish, and its generous finish helps prolong the pleasurable experience.

This is a lovely Pinot Noir that succeeds vintage after vintage and has a fan base that looks for it every year. The 2016 shows attractive, fairly concentrated and nicely complex fruit that’s balanced by fresh acidity. The texture is smooth and inviting and the tannins are relaxed. There’s simply nothing not to like about this wine. Four stars.

The right kind of stepping-stone Pinot La Crema makes a lot of wine, and that is good news, because you can find this bottle almost anywhere and it's a great expression of the balanced side of Pinot Noir on a large production level. There is a lot going on here, with vanilla and cherries on the nose along with some fun earthy aromas such as clove, mushrooms and a hint of beetroot (soil). On the palate the wine is comfy and chewy with added aromas of slight cola and caramel along with a rhubarb tinge finishing with a whisper of black olive. You can’t go wrong with this wine, it’s a nice stepping stone to higher priced, focused bottles from this region.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

La Crema pinot noir is one of those wines that has been popular for a long time. People know it is good, you see it everywhere, and you don’t think about it much. Every time I drink it I am reminded why it is so popular. It is just what a pinot noir is supposed to taste like: full of ripe red fruit, juicy cherry, plums and blackberries. It is a refreshing wine that pairs well with a wide variety of food. The suggested retail price is $25, but I often see it on sale for several dollars less. It is a fun wine to drink, even without food, so when you can find it on sale, you are getting a really good deal. Powerful aromas of cherry and plum start things off, leading to complex fruit flavors with hints of spice and toast. Everything is in balance, leading to a long, pleasant finish with a smooth mouthfeel.

Large-volume La Crema bottles Pinot Noirs at a wide range of prices, and this one over-delivers. It’s a blend of grapes from a dozen or so vineyards, which winemaker Craig McAllister wove into a seamless wine with robust fruit, intense spice, and woodsy earthiness. It’s not a shy wine, so it’s best served with wildmushroom risotto with lots of savory Parmigiano-Reggiano, or perhaps mushroom-topped pizza.